PRESS 21. FSF: Slovenia-Serbia Co-production Meeting

14-09-2018

PRESS 21. FSF: Slovenia-Serbia Co-production Meeting

Slovenia-Serbia Co-production Meeting

Part one of the co-production meeting organised by the Slovenian and Serbian film centres entitled Co-production Meeting – In focus: Serbia & Follow-up: Austria took place today as part of the Industry Events at the 21st Festival of Slovenian Film. The meeting will conclude on Saturday with business meetings between producers of the two countries.

Ever since the establishment of the Slovenian Film Fund, the Slovenian film industry has had a very constructive co-operation with filmmakers from the neighbouring countries. After the 1990s, when most co-productions were with the countries of the former Yugoslavia, this slowly began to include other European countries, especially Italy. As an evident deficit was identified in terms of co-operation with Austrian producers, the first Co-production Meeting focused on filmmakers, producers and relevant institutions from Austria. The second in a series of co-production meetings focuses on Serbian cinema, featuring presentations of funding opportunities, locations in Serbia, and examples of successful co-productions between Serbia and Slovenia and third countries.

The meeting welcomed many industry guests from the region who are leading players in their respective countries: directors and representatives of national and regional film centres and funds Gorjan Tozija, Ylljet Alicka, Danijela Radulović, Alessandro Gropplero, and representatives of major film institutions and festivals.

In the first part of the meeting, the activities of Serbia’s Film Center and its international co-production potential were presented by its Director, Boban Jevtić. This was followed by a brief summary of last year’s Co-production Meeting with Austrian Cinema and a case study presentation of the successful Slovenian-Austrian co-production Skiing in Scarves being produced by Boštjan Virc and directed by Haidy Kancler. Both of them are also members of this year’s festival jury.

An interesting fact related to the comparison of the three participating countries is that between 2016 and 2017 Slovenia recorded a 5% average growth in the number of completed feature films, Serbia also only slightly more than 6%, whereas neighbouring Austria recorded a 50% growth.

The event also featured project pitches: the second part included pitches of selected Slovenian works in progress that show interest in including in their co-production structure a co-producer from a neighbouring country and, above all, have adequate co-production potential for collaboration with producers from Serbia. Works in progress were presented by producer Rok Sečen (Zavod Mono O), Boštjan Ikovic (ARSMEDIA d.o.o), producer Ida Weiss (Senca Studio) and director Jurij Gruden, producer Miha Čelar (Astral Film) and producer Tamara Babun, producer Danijel Hočevar (Vertigo), producer Zoran Dževerdanović (Blade Production), producer and director Rok Biček (Cvinger film) and producer Danijel Pek, producer Lija Pogačnik (Zavod December) and director Tijana Zinajić.

Representing Serbian cinema were Boban Jevtić (Film Center Serbia), Miloš Ivanović (Platfroma), Marko Jocić (Viktorija film), Milan Stojanović (SENSE Production), and Biljana Tutorov (Wake Up Films).

The event was hosted by Jelka Stergel.

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* FEATURE FILMS PRODUCED 2013 – 2017